“He’s just a good friend of mine, sort of like a brother to me in hip-hop and, you know, doing all that time, everybody expected him to just come out and be like the old Shyne, but it’s gonna take a while,” Game said in an interview. “I’m sure he’s rough around the edges. It’s kinda like if Kobe [Bryant] just decides to sit it down, and you come back out your first three, it’s probably gonna be an airball, you know? You just gotta give him a little room, a little space, let him breathe and I’m sure you’ll get the old Shyne back. That’s him man [with the beef], and I’m glad he can take that 50 Cent beef with him. I’m slowly but surely phasing it out, and I might poke a little fun here and there but for the most part I’m over it.” (VIBE)

“The champ is here and not a minute too quickly, like Mike, I’m back to the city to drop 50,” Shyne raps. “Upon my return, I empty the cartridge, got fat while I was gone, now I’ma send you where God is/Ah-hem, let me clear my throat — when you talk to the Feds, spell my name with a ‘y’/I hate rats and chumps, you guys ain’t gorillas, you’re f*cking chipmunks/F-Y-I, I’m the king of the jungle…” (“There Will Be Blood”)

“I didn’t hear it, actually,” Banks explained to hip-hop personality Miss Info. “I spoke with Fif today — he just laughed about it. I heard some other things that Shyne put out and I’ll be the first to tell you and the world, he’s very, very wack. I’m telling you right now, it was something in the food or something, he’s at a D-Class rapper right now. You know how the dude that wakes up and ‘I’m a rap right now because my homie’s doing it.’ You don’t hear it? What kind of style he’s got right now? I’m not digging that right now…I didn’t know what to think…” (Miss Info TV)

“He explained, in no uncertain terms, that in order for him to move forward with his life, and stay on the right path, he feels he needs to make drastic changes, and the flow you hear now, is just a small part of that. So the Shyne you hear now, like it or not, for better or for worse, is the Shyne we’ll be hearing from here out. You don’t have to like it, but I think you have to respect it.” (Nah Right)